Back in 2008, my officemate and friend Arnaldo Arnáiz, a history buff like me, were talking about how to enter the publishing industry. We've been blogging about Filipino History and national identity for quite some time but we've also been haunted by the "publish or perish" mantra of many writers. To our young minds, we needed to get published if we are to gain at least an ounce of respect, if not renown, as history writers.
So I thought of an idea. Why not write a history of San Pedro Tunasán, my family's adoptive home since 2004? I broached this idea to Arnaldo and he liked it. After all, researching about the history of a small town would be a doddle, especially since the mayor back then, Calixto Catáquiz, was a friend of my dad's cousin, Ramoncito "Mónching" Alas.
I've been hearing about Tito Mónching having a powerful poltician for a friend since I was a kid. Although Mayor Calex grew up in his mother's hometown of San Pedro Tunasán, his father was from Unisán, the Tayabense town of my provenance. In fact, his family's bank originated from there, and I do remember playing with my cousins in front of its entrance while Tito Mónching was angrily shooing us away. 
Inside the bank was a stately gentleman in barong tagálog, gently smiling at us kids. Later in life, I found out that it was Mayor Calex, back then a young manager of his family-owned bank.
Fast forward to 2004. When my family moved to San Pedro Tunasán (now carrying only the saint's name), a was reminded again by a relative (I couldn't remember who) that Tito Mónching's friend was a politician there. I didn't give it much attention. After toying around with Marxism-Leninism back in college, I had transformed into an apolitical animal. Then in 2008, all I had really wanted was to publish a history book with my name on it.
Using my clout, I texted Tito Mónching to introduce me to his mayor friend. He arranged for a meeting, instructing me and Arnaldo to visit the mayor on this certain date. So off we went there one morning in mid 2008, right after our night shift (we were then working in a call center in Alabang). By the time we reached the old municipal building (fronting the San Pedro Apóstol Church), Mayor Calex was about to finish the mass wedding that he was officiating inside his office. While waiting outside, Arnaldo and I saw him through the glass door. He was standing and talking in front of several couples, with a gentle smile on his countenance. For some reason that I couldn't remember, there was also halo of gentle light right behind him. Arnaldo and I jokingly said that he seemed like a saint. 
After the ceremonies, we approached one of his office staff about our agenda, and we were brought immediately to his table. We introduced ourselves, and immediately told him our agenda. He was all ears, intently listening to each word we were saying. When we were done, we were disappointed with his reply: San Pedro Tunasán has already published a book about its history. He then grabbed a copy of the book from his drawer. San Pedro, Laguna (Noon at Ngayon), authored by Amalia Rosales and Gaudencio Ordoña, was a project of the previous mayor (Felicísimo Vierneza). As I was embarrasingly browsing through its pages, I was already trying to form the words on how to graciously exit the good mayor's office. But he stopped us from getting up from our seats. What he told us was surprising: our arrival was a good coincidence because he was actually looking for someone to write his biography. He said that maybe we could be of good use. He then asked us for lunch if we weren't busy. Since we haven't eaten breakfast yet, we of course didn't ignore the offer.
We drove to Santa Rosa. Accompanying us were a couple of bodyguards. We thought that this was no ordinary town mayor. He must be someone very big. While on our way to his chosen restaurant, he told us a bit about himself, and why he had wanted his lifestory to be told in spite of the fact that he was just a mayor of a small Lagunense town. He admitted that he was inspired by Dolphy's biography, Dolphy: Hindi Ko Ito Narating Mag-isa, published early that year. Dolphy, it turned out, was a personal friend of his. And not only him but several more: Fernando Poe, Jr., Fidel V. Ramos, Salvador Laurel, etc. These were not acquaintances but friends. This guy was no ordinary mayor.
Mayor Calex gave us a deadline: he had wanted his biography published and launched on the town fiesta the following year. That would be February of 2009. Easy peasy, we thought.
But what we thought would be a walk in the park became a hard lesson in methodology. We were bloggers, not historians nor biographers. While I am confident with my writing (having been trained by the later poetess Amelita Cuala de Málig), I soon realized that it wasn't enough. We had to be trained properly, but there was no time nor was it convenient to enroll for formal lessons. We worked on our own using Internet technology, and that meant a lot of reading and analysis. We became busy not only with interviewing the mayor but also on researching on the places, events, personas, and milieu that shaped his life and political thoughts. That compelled me to research and write more about San Pedro Tunasán. Then one thing led to another. I eventually gathered more material not only about San Pedro Tunasán but also about the province where it belonged. I published these in my blog and in social media until I got noticed by someone working for then La Laguna governor E.R. Ejército who invited me to write a comprehensive history of the province. It then led me to accidentally discover the province's foundation date. Eventually, the press started calling me a "young historian". The rest is proverbial history.
In a way, writing Mayor Calex's biography put me where I am today. That is why I am indebted to him.
Unfortunately, his biography remains in limbo. Nothing came out of his one-year deadline. Our inhumane schedules and other unprecedented political upheavals prevented us from finishing it. Worse, Arnaldo migrated to Singapore with his wife a few years later, leaving me on my lonesome. And each time that I was able to finish the biography, Mayor Calex would assign me to add more chapters since there were more additions to his colorful life.
The lifestory that I began to write with Arnaldo in 2008 concluded shortly before the pandemic began. It was more than a decade in the making! During the past few years, he had great plans for the book launching. But the pandemic ended it. Nevertheless, the last time I spoke with Mayor Calex about his biography was over the phone last September 30. He had wanted to have it published and launched on this date, December 29, his 74th birthday. I suggested to him to launch it instead the following year, on his 75th, his diamond birthday. But he insisted to launch it this year, as soon as possible. I found it odd.
It turned out that it was one of our final phone conversation. He passed away last month, on November 30th, shocking not just San Pedro Tunasán but the people of Unisán as well.
Mayor Calex with my children during our city's Sampaguita Festival eight years ago.
"Alam niyo, noong 1980, napilitan lang talaga akong tumakbong mayor, eh," he said during one of our interviews for his lifestory. But how does one really approach the life of a career public servant? Clearly, with difficulty, especially if the man is an untraditional politician, so to speak, whose service to this small but historic city of San Pedro Tunasán has been a story of highs and lows, of struggles and victories (such as his remarkable return to the mayoralty in 2007 after a long absence). For Mayor Calex was no ordinary mayor. True, his native San Pedro Tunasán (now known as the City of San Pedro) may not be as prominent as other cities and municipalities that would merit him a biography (as a matter of fact, discounting Nick Joaquín's biography of former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, this book that I began with Arnaldo could very well be the first memoir of a mayor ever written outside of Metro Manila). However, Mayor Calex stood out from the rest as a unique political figure whose strong leadership and passionate heart for his people have set him apart not only from former magistrates of this young city but from other local government leaders across the country as well. Some of these leaders conform to the type that may appear to many as traditional and sometimes self-serving. A San Pedrense might even say that the contributions made by some former leaders of the city have had little constructive effect on the lives of its people, while Mayor Calex —an administrator and a public servant who grew up in this once sleepy town— demanded more of himself as a leader. Growing up in San Pedro Tunasán, he saw what needed to be done, and so he took action (thus earning him the monicker "The Action Man" during the early 2000s). He made a great sacrifice to reach his dreams for his hometown by momentarily straying away from a successful business career in exchange for the tumultuous world of politics. At a very young age (he was 31), he unselfishly left a life that had already made him and his family financially secure and comfortable. He followed the call of his people, of his town, of his San Pedro.
He followed a different path by choosing the road less traveled. For instance, during the 1986 EDSA Revolution, he made the difficult choice of risking his life —and that of his family and business career— when he provided support for the cause of those who sought to overthrow Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship. He led the people of San Pedro to EDSA, funding with his own money buses and food for his constituents in support for the return of democracy — when he wasn't even the chief executive of San Pedro yet! He was prepared to sacrifice his life just to uphold a noble ideal. Because of his involvement in anti-Marcos protests, he was spied on by the authorities, and even had a brief fall out with his parents who were good friends of the dictator. All this he ignored for he knew in his heart that he was fighting a good fight.
Mayor Catáquiz was a businessman first before he got involved in politics — quite a feat for someone who neither had any political training in school nor at home (his parents were not politicians but business people with ties to politics). During his adult years, with Martial Law as backdrop, he began to understand that San Pedro, like many other places in the Philippines, needed change. As a businessman (a bank manager at that), he had firsthand knowledge of his town's economic difficulties, thanks to his day-to-day dealings with all kinds of people: the rich and the modest, prominent town figures and laborers, bigtime depositors and have-nots looking for economic hope through the thrift bank that he set-up with his wife and a friend when he was just 30 years old: the Sampaguita Savings and Loan Association, Inc., named after San Pedro's pride: the sampaguita flower (Jasminum sambac).
As he had declared time and again, he was forced to run for mayor at age 31. And so, at 31, he didn't simply heed the call for public governance — he challenged himself as well to indeed aspire to the town's highest post. Although unsuccessful on his first try, it only fortified his desire and unrelenting will to lead San Pedro to a much better governance than it had ever experienced before. Wanting to get rid of the old and unproductive political system, he stood for something bigger than himself. He drove himself to change San Pedro. His fight was the fight of all the people of his town. He made himself ready to stand against those who would stall his town's progress. He was determined to give the people of San Pedro the governance they truly deserved. We told ourselves, after all had been said and done, that the people needed to know what is in this man's heart, his vision, and his legacy.
No one before him has, ever or since, remained as passionate for the people's welfare; he is more inclined towards the principle of better administration, away from the unsavoriness of traditional politics. He alone made the act of sacrifice into a virtue reminiscent of a true Sanpedrense. We realized that all his admirable attributes — his strong character, proven management skills, and patriotism and craftiness —including even his endearing and natural street or masa language— were the products of a mind attuned to the unusual desire to serve his people in exchange for nothing. What else would he need? He already comes from the moneyed class.
Mayor Catáquiz recognized that politicking and the so-called trapo politics of local parlance was a barrier for all; he therefore believed that it had to be taken out of the system if the town was to become the progressive city it dreams to become one day (which it did on 29 December 2013). In this age of affluence, his time-tested political record strikes a resounding chord. But aside from those who know him on a personal level, most of the people of San Pedro have not even heard the real story behind their former Mayor, Calixto "Calex" Catáquiz y Ramírez. His fascinating life, in my view, is the success story that this young city needs to learn from and follow.
From his businessman days to his time as the chief executive of San Pedro, including his various socio-cultural activities, all deserve to be chronicled for posterity. It is my intention that his life be set as an exemplar for all, particularly to the next generation of Sanpedrenses who are the major stakeholders of the new city's future.
My decision to study him was made easier by the fact that he was humble enough to sit down for long hours with an unknown citizen historian, a mere history buff blogging about history. Quite early in my conversation with the then local chief executive (Arnaldo was still assisting me), I immediately felt comfortable and easy. He spoke like a regular guy. Here is a simple man, with great power gently hidden by a gentler voice with a hearty laugh, but with grander visions for San Pedro.
My biography of Mayor Calex may not tell his complete life story (it is sad that I didn't have the opportunity to interview his friends who grew up with him, many of whom have already moved either to other countries or the afterlife), but it attempts to present the mayor as both a leader and public servant. It is also an attempt to place him firmly in his time and explore areas that have not been previously been dealt with in great depth. I was thinking particularly of the events in his life that would serve as good examples for the youth (like his zeal for helping his parents when he was still young). I was firmly convinced that Mayor Calex is a unique leader — an accidental one, but one who was able to make waves in the city. Here is a man whose story deserves to be recorded. Like his idol Governor Felicísimo San Luis before him, Mayor Calex was at first reluctant to the call of duty. But ever since taking his decision to finally follow his destiny, the social landscape of San Pedro Tunasán has never been the same. It is with both honor and pleasure that I was tasked to author the life of San Pedro's 50% politician, 50% administrator, the brains behind the town's admirable transformation from a municipality into a first class component city. Hopefully, his still unpublished biography will see light of day and serve the City of San Pedro, Laguna well as it intends to be — a book that will inspire its citizenry, particularly the next generation who must dream for bigger things for the province's newest city. I am still hopeful that it will get published and spur its Sanpedrense readers to devote their lives to the advocacy of honest leadership and a local government that truly belongs to the people.
Vintage photo of Don José Lorenzo Amante y Onlivares and a young Calixto Catáquiz. Mayor Amante was the one who convinced Calex to try politics. Mayor Amante, a beloved icon of San Pedro Tunasán, was a three-term mayor (25 November 1941 – 30 December 30 1941;
November 1946 – December 1947, and; 1 January 1964 – 31 December 1971).
PROLOGUE TO THE BIOGRAPHY
As he stepped out of the imposingly handsome city hall (technically, it was then a municipal hall, but people were already calling it as such since cityhood back then was already pending), a frail lad in worn-out slippers, carrying a basket of buchì, approached First Gentleman Calixto Catáquiz. The young vendor, probably around 10, was hoping to make a sale that evening. It seemed that he had no inkling that the equally imposing figure he approached was a giant in provincial politics, a legend in his own right. But the child never saw all these admirable trappings of a political legend in FG Calex. Usually, children had an uncanny way of sensing authority in people. Not that FG Calex didn't exude authority, but this oftentimes intimidating trait is superseded by a much higher quality: humility. And most probably, this was what the young buchi vendor had sensed.
FG Calex, or "Citizen Calex", still as busy as he was when still mayor, stopped in his tracks and, with his usual scrutinizing eyes, innocently asked the child what his ware was. It must had been a slow day because when the lad opened his basket of goodies, it was still half-filled. Citizen Calex jokingly played the role of the Probing Customer and asked the child how much the buchi was and if they taste any good. The child shyly stared at the former mayor who steered San Pedro's rise from anonymity. The former mayor, smart and dashing as he had always been, then took out his wallet and plucked out a crisp ₱500 bill as payment but without showing any interest in the buchi at all; the boy just gave his buchi to Citizen Calex's bodyguards. For sure, the amount the boy received was more than what he could have earned in two or three days.
It can be observed that Citizen Calex —people still call him Mayor Calex— has a soft spot for the young ones although he does not talk about it that much. But it can be observed in him. In one funeral he attended in an upland barrio (or barangay) of San Pedro a few years ago, he had some of the kids he saw there line up so that he could give them newly minted twenty-peso bills. In a matter of minutes, the short queue stretched to almost half a kilometer of excited kids (and young adults who tried to sneak in) eager to receive candy and junk food money. Inadvertently, he left an otherwise sad funeral happy and boisterous. And in a charity sortie in Sitio Catáquiz (on his 65th birthday), Citizen Calex demonstrated the same generosity to impoverished kids there.
One day, on his final years as mayor of San Pedro during the 90s, a lost child was reported to him. According to the report, the boy and his parents were attending a birthday party in a Shakey's Pizza outlet in Alabang, Muntinlupa. It was not clear how the boy disappeared from the party; most probably he exited the restaurant without anyone noticing. The child, a three-year-old boy, turned out to be the son of a couple whose wedding Mayor Calex had sponsored a few years back. The mayor made the case a priority, working hard on it day and night and losing sleep, not so much because he was the wedding "ninong" of the missing boy's parents but for the simple reason that he himself was also a parent of five children, not to mention an only son. Thus it was not difficult for him to empathize with the pain and anguish of the missing boy's parents. Mayor Calex coordinated with then Muntinlupa Mayor Ignacio "Toting" Bunye, pressuring all their men in finding the boy as soon as possible.
Finally, after three days of frantic search, he was alerted by one of Mayor Bunye's "barangay tanod" (a member of a barrio's roving peace and security officer). The boy was found in a small house in Muntinlupa's Barrio Cupang near Laguna de Bay. The boy, who had been crying for days, was being nursed by an old lady who seemed not too keen of returning him to his parents. It took a lot of convincing, plus a ₱5,000 "reward" from Mayor Calex, for the lady to finally give up the boy who she claimed to have seen wandering outside the pizza outlet. What great joy did the parents feel when they were finally able to embrace their son once more!
Twenty years later, the boy, now a grown professional, paid FG Calex a visit in his Barrio Santo Niño residence, bringing with him a bottle of wine, some goodies, and a heartfelt letter of thanks. Roldán A. Gilbuena, now a civil engineer, had to introduce himself to the retired mayor to help the latter recall who he was. Immediately, the memories of those frantic three days in 1995 gushed out like a trapped river in the recesses of Mayor Calex's mind. In an instant, it all came back. Gilbuena may no longer remember the exact details of his being lost during that birthday party in Shakey's Pizza since he was only three years of age back then, but FG Calex, upon being reminded of those anxious three days, immediately remembered every detail, even the exact date when Gilbuena was first reported missing: 5 July 1995. FG Calex was so touched with the show of gratitude that he offered the young man a job at city hall as a resident engineer.
Looking back, FG Calex is now wondering what were the odds of finding a missing three-year-old boy in humongous Metro Manila. What if Gilbuena was never found at all? What could have been his future? Would have he been an engineer at all if he were not reunited with his parents? It is without question that FG Calex had a hand in shaping the young engineer's future. And this reunion he had with the boy whose future he saved inspired him all the more to work for the betterment of San Pedro's youth.
We are always reminded the oft-repeated cliché that the children are our future. This mantra must certainly be in Citizen Calex's subconscious as it is always a delight for him to delight the little ones. Small little gifts such as candy money are already prized memories. Children who grow up with happy memories are almost always the ones with the best outlook in life — how many times has this happy notion been proven!
But Citizen Calex is not that short-sighted as to provide small amounts that will vanish almost instantly. Delighting children with happy moments is just a diversion, of course. Because leaving a much bigger imprint into the hearts and minds of his fellow San pedrenses is his life's challenge.
Mayor Calex is one of a kind, one of the most humble, meek, and generous persons I have ever met. He is a well-known millionaire in our province, yet the masses would easily mistake him as one of their own due to his non-elitist speech. Whenever we're on the road, he would talk about politics with his driver and bodyguards in a chummy manner — as if they were not on his payroll! I remember one time we were eating in a restaurant with his friends, the waiter committed some mistake. Instead of hearing a mouthful from the mayor, he called the waiter and whispered to him the mistake the latter made. Yes, he whispered to him so that others wouldn't hear. He did not embarrass the waiter, as what would have likely transpired had the mistake occurred to other elitists.
I should say, you will likely know that you have a good public servant in your community when their family is in good standing. Several times we hear in the news about some bratty kid violating the law and boasting that he is the son or nephew of this or that politician. But you will hear nothing of this sort from Mayor Calex's family.
In 2013, he and his wife (Lourdes "Baby" Catáquiz) stood as our wedding sponsors. The following year, in 2014 the president of Yngen Holdings, Inc. threatened to kill me and my family over some Facebook squabble. Mayor Calex had to hide us for over a month. In August of that year, my wife almost lost her life while giving birth to our youngest daughter. The hospital bills soared to heights that I have never seen before. Being very sensitive about money, it took me almost the entire day trying to form right words on how to ask for his help. When he found out about my wife's condition as I was talking to him over the phone, I heard a genuine concern in his voice. In fact, he sounded more concerned than I was.
What I will truly miss the most is the countless conversations that we had about politics as he had a good appetite to share them with. It was from him where I learned the ins and outs of internal politics, the good and the bad behind it. It was actually Mayor Calex who helped me to be hopeful about politics.
Today is his 74th birth anniversary. It is also the 9th anniversary of San Pedro Tunasán's cityhood, a status which he had helped realize. Today is also first birthday that he's not around. I will miss him terribly. Requiescat in pace.
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